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Report: US more competitive on worldwide marketplace

The United States climbed the ranks of the world’s most competitive economies, according to a new report.

In its latest rankings of global competitiveness, the World Economic Forum determined the U.S. had the world’s third most competitive economy, behind only Switzerland and Singapore worldwide. That’s an improvement from its ranking in 2013, when it came in fifth, and the second year in a row the U.S. has improved its standing in the annual report.

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The forum praised the U.S. for making a strong comeback from the financial crisis, calling its companies “highly sophisticated and innovative,” bolstered by a strong education system and the large size of the economy: the world’s largest.

The forum did determine that the largest obstacles facing the U.S. economy primarily came from the government, flagging the nation’s tax rates, regulations and “red tape” as some of the biggest hindrances.

The U.S. slid all the way to seventh in 2012, as partisan battles in Washington weighed on the nation’s finances and economy.

The forum puts together its global ranking by considering a host of factors in each nation, and how they encourage or hinder economic growth and prosperity. Those factors include infrastructure, education, technology and financial markets.

While Wednesday’s report found that the U.S. was improving its standing on the global scale, the picture was more mixed worldwide. The forum warned that even though central banks have pushed accommodative policies across the globe, there remained broad risks to the world economy. It noted that structural reforms to improve competitiveness are spreading unevenly across the globe.